Some of you may have noticed that our card messages periodically (and for some frequently) change. If we were perfect at writing messages, this would not happen. But we are not perfect at it, even though we’ve done it for eight years now.

We have found that writing messages most people really like is really hard. I guess if we were naturally funny, witty, clever, or had majored in English, writing greeting card messages would come naturally to us. But none of these descriptions apply to us. We are two analytical and detailed oriented people who are trying to use the right side of their brain (but which seems like the wrong side), and this apparently takes time and effort to do it well.

We continue to believe that God wanted us to create a greeting card business, or at least He was in approval of our desire to do it, despite our lack of artistic and creative talents. As such, we will continue to plug along, asking for wisdom and creativity along the way, and pray that you will (eventually) be blessed from having the patience to read through many greeting card messages until you find ones that meet your expectations!

After taking a six month or so break from creating cards, and focusing primarily on my blog (ssosborne5.wordpress.com), the itch came back to create more cards, and that’s what I’m doing now.

They say that brevity is the soul of wit, and while I’m neither witty nor overly brief in what I write, I’ve decided to try writing card messages with brevity in mind. As a result, most of the new ones I’ve posted have only two sentences in them – a main point sentence, followed by a brief sentence that hopefully adds a little humor.

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve created any new cards, and hits on our site reflect that, with a large drop off in visitors the past few months. I’ve spent a lot of time on my other blog (https://ssosborne5.wordpress.com), which I’ve enjoyed, but realized it was time for a break from that so I could use the other side of my brain and create cards again. I just created two yesterday, and want to begin creating a new one each week or two.

In recent weeks I’ve been spending more time writing in my religious blog, https://ssosborne5@wordpress.com, than creating greeting cards. I’ve reviewed most books in the New Testament in terms of what they say about salvation, and written about how a person becomes a Christian. It has been a rewarding one-year project thus far, and I’m just about done.

When I finish, my goal is to put my comments into a book, add a section on prayer, and title it something like “How to become a Christian…and live like one too”. I’ll need to hire an artist to draw an image for each chapter, so if you know of any good Christian artists, please let me know. I have used a handful in the past for our greeting cards, but I’m not sure they would work well for the type of images I have in mind.

But before embarking on a book later this year, I want to get back into the swing of things with this site and balance my time between creating cards and writing blog comments. My focus will be on what we call our Sheep Story cards. These cards have a humorous image of a sheep on the cover, and part of a story on the back page. No one, that we know of, has or does anything like this.

Now is a good time of the year for us to purge old inventory (cards that don’t sell) and focus our attention on creating new cards for the coming year.

I’ve removed more than a dozen cards so far, and plan to eliminate more until our total number of cards is in the 100 – 150 range.

At one point, we offered roughly 300 cards, but that was under the philosophy that “something would stick” if you simply made a lot of cards (that is, a customer would be more likely to a buy a card if more cards were offered). We later learned, and are still learning, that quality trumps quantity.

We recently received an inquiry from a potential customer about why we use the NLT (New Living Translation) in some of our greeting cards. I thought I’d provide a response here.

Personally, we use the NAS version, and the NIV, in most of our in-depth review of the Bible.

I have found the NLT to be an easy version to read in order to gain a quick and general understanding of a bible story or passage, but I would not advocate using it for a serious study of the Bible.

In terms of which translation we show on our cards, we generally use the NIV and NLT. We have found that some Christians prefer not to have a Bible verse shown on a card. To accommodate these people, we have used a “toned down” translation of the Bible, the New Living Translation, in some cards, though we typically show it right under the card’s message, or on the bottom of the same page as the message. We often include a Bible verse because it relates to our message, and because we believe Christian cards should contain a verse (for if it does not, is it a Christian card?).

We are happy to make a substitute for any customer in any cards that are ordered from us. We have access to many different types of Bible translations, and can easily replace a NLT verse with NAS, ESV, KJV, NKJV, etc. Simply let us know via a contact page at the time you place an order.

As mentioned in our About Us page, one thing that makes some of our cards unique is the short stories we have written on the back pages of certain Sent for Him greeting cards. The stories, which are similar to long fables, are entertaining, inspiring and religious.

Although we wrote drafts of our stories and posted them here some time ago, we thought we’d re-post the final version of one of our stories – Church – as a teaser to persuade you to consider buying the set of cards with this story (or the sets that contain our other two companion stories).

So, without further adieu, here’s story #2…

STORY 2 (CHURCH)1. Slippers (Adult Birthday)

Sheep awoke from a pleasant sleep, but felt sore after winning yesterday’s big race. He looks forward to relaxing today and taking an afternoon nap – his usual routine on Sundays.1

1Jeremiah 31:26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.

2. Smiling Face (Adult Birthday)

After a quick bite of breakfast, Sheep and his wife hurry to get ready and be prepared for church.2 Sheep’s wife throws on her new outfit, and asks Sheep if she looks fat in it. Not knowing what to say, Sheep tells her that he needs to start the car in the garage since they are running late.

2Ezekiel 38:7 “‘Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them.

3. Drive (Adult Birthday)

Leaving behind schedule, Sheep finds himself speeding on the way to church, and feels a little guilty for doing so.3 An old, beat up car in front of him is driving the speed limit, but too slow for Sheep. He decides to teach the driver a lesson by tailgating him for a minute, and then completes the lesson by zooming around him while honking his horn. At the next intersection, Sheep takes a sharp turn onto a side street that leads to the church.

Arriving late to church, Sheep and his wife are escorted to a pew in front. After singing what seemed to be a dozen songs and listening to half of the sermon, Sheep’s eyes became very heavy.4 Shortly after drifting to sleep, he awakes to a sharp pain in his side from his wife’s elbow, and without thinking clearly shouts, “Amen!” Fortunately, Sheep’s response came at the end of the pastor’s sermon, so others in the church didn’t seem to mind other than his wife, who turns to Sheep and gives him “the look.”

4Matthew 26:43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.

5. (Mother’s Day)

Upon arriving home from church, Sheep’s wife spends the next hour in the kitchen preparing a big, Sunday afternoon meal. Sheep forgets to thank her for efforts and how well the food tasted, but she doesn’t mind. Soon after eating, Sheep’s wife washes the dishes, cleans the table, and sits down to cut out coupons from the newspaper. Although Sunday is a day of rest, she always has plenty to do. 5

5 Proverbs 31:27 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

6. Visitor (Get Well)

With a full stomach and the comics section of the paper in hand, Sheep is ready to relax in his favorite chair and take a nap, but all of a sudden the doorbell rings. Sheep walks to the front door to see the smiling face of a visitor, and then notices the visitor’s car in Sheep’s driveway…it’s the one he had tailgated on the way to church! 6

6 Genesis 4:7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

7. Evening (Adult Birthday)

The visitor introduces himself as a former college classmate who is now pastor of a small rural church, and says he wanted to stop by and see Sheep while he and his family were on vacation. Sheep invites the pastor, his wife and their four small children into his home. After several minutes of small talk, Sheep, with a tear in his eye, asks the pastor if they can talk privately in an adjacent room.7

7 Genesis 43:30 Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.

8. Carefree (Adult Birthday)

With a lump in his throat and a sheepish look on his face, Sheep confessed to the pastor the morning’s sin that had troubled him, and the pastor warmly forgave him.8 With the burden off of his back and a new spring in his step, Sheep joyfully asks the pastor to stay for supper, to which the pastor replied, “My family and I would be delighted. Thank you.”